<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>On Jellyfish and Kissing by LadyKatWrites</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22574449">On Jellyfish and Kissing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKatWrites/pseuds/LadyKatWrites'>LadyKatWrites</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Exploring You Series [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Atypical (TV 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Fluff, Kissing, Penguins, frustrated Casey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:33:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,717</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22574449</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKatWrites/pseuds/LadyKatWrites</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>All Casey wants is to be kissing her girlfriend, but here they are stuck on a family trip to the aquarium. Part one of a series in which Casey and Izzie try to find enough alone time to explore their new relationship.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Casey Gardner/Izzie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Exploring You Series [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624249</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>204</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>On Jellyfish and Kissing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Why does Professor Shinerock keep asking us to do these impossible assignments?” Sam asks for what must be the fortieth time.</p>
<p>At least Casey feels like it is the fortieth time. The past twenty minutes (<i>Only twenty minutes? Seriously?</i>) stuck in the middle of the backseat of the car with her brother and his ruminations about his most recent scientific illustration assignment would have been completely unbearable, if it wasn’t for the fact that the other side of her body was currently pressed up against her extremely attractive girlfriend.</p>
<p>Casey couldn’t quite believe her luck when Izzie had offered to come to the aquarium and keep her company all day. Izzie had assured her that yes, she was coming of her own free will. In fact, it was kind of exciting because she had never gotten to go to the aquarium before. (A reminder to Casey of just how different Izzie’s childhood had been from her own..) And yes, Izzie knew it would mean being stuck in the car with Sam and Casey’s parents, but since Casey was training so hard with Coach Crowley, they hardly got any time to see each other. This weekend family trip to the aquarium, which Elsa was forcing Casey to go on, would have to suffice. Casey didn’t fight that logic but still felt like Izzie didn’t realize what she was getting herself into.</p>
<p>Currently, Izzie looks like she may be rethinking her decision to come as she stares out the window at the passing scenery. Casey reaches over and threads their fingers together. The other girl immediately squeezes her hand and turns to smile at her. </p>
<p>Casey can feel her stomach knot up and her heart pound in her chest with just that one little look from Izzie. She grins back with what she feels must be the most soppy smile in the universe. <i>Dude, brain, be COOL</i>, Casey thinks, but it doesn’t do much good. Casey might be the queen of snappy comebacks and emotional deflection most of the time, but these days Izzie is her kryptonite.</p>
<p>Mostly to keep herself from saying something embarrassingly romantic to Izzie in front of her mom, Casey turns her attention back to Sam.</p>
<p>“So, what’s the assignment again?” She asks.</p>
<p>“I have to draw my animal in motion. Not just a picture of a swimming penguin. My professor said I have to draw movement. He said he wants to “feel” my penguin moving when he looks at my work. Honestly, I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Sam looks at Casey like she is completely hopeless as a sister. “Weren’t you listening before? I already told you this.”</p>
<p>Casey had been listening, kind of. <i>OK, not really</i>, she concedes to herself.</p>
<p>It’s just that what she really wants to be doing this weekend is spending time with her still fairly new girlfriend. Preferably kissing her. Yep, mainly she wants to be kissing her girlfriend literally anywhere that is not two feet from her family. And since this trip has put a huge crimp in those plans, Casey can at least protest by not listening.</p>
<p>Since she had agreed to Coach Crowley’s plan to train her in hopes of getting a scholarship to UCLA, Casey’s free moments have been few and far between. Izzie had been stuck at her own house taking care of her younger siblings for the last couple weeks as well, which didn’t help matters. They were really only able to see each other at school and talk on the phone or text at night. It wasn’t like school was a good place to be alone together. Summer was coming soon, though, and Casey was optimistic that they would finally get more time together then. </p>
<p>This year had been so confusing when it came to Casey’s feelings for Izzie, and now that she was sure of what she wanted, she couldn’t wait to get more time with her girlfriend. Everytime they kissed, and even everytime Casey looked at Izzie these days, the desire to be with her, to hold her, to touch her, to be together-- it was overwhelming. This was something that Casey had never ever felt with Evan. It was amazing, but also really, really frustrating at the moment.</p>
<p>She tunes back into her brother’s voice in time to hear him lament the problem with, “Depicting something so clearly four dimentional in a two dementional space.”</p>
<p><i>What?</i> Honestly, sometimes she has no clue what her brother is talking about.</p>
<p>“Wait, aren’t there only three dimensions?” Casey is confused.</p>
<p>“No. Time is the fourth one,” Izzie suddenly joins in the conversation. “You really haven’t been listening to your brother have you, Newton?” she adds with a teasing smile aimed in Casey’s direction.</p>
<p>“No, but I didn’t think you were either, nerd,” Casey retorts quickly. No way was she going to get ganged up on by her brother and her girlfriend.</p>
<p>“Thank you, Izzie,” Sam looks around Casey to acknowledge Izzie’s obvious superiority to his sister. It wasn’t the first time that Sam had found Izzie to be a kindred spirit when it came to something scientific. She was starting to grow on him despite all of the drama that she seemed to put Casey through a few months ago. </p>
<p>“I’ve decided that I’ll listen to you if you have any good ideas,” he adds. “You are obviously going to be more helpful to me than Casey... or Zahid. I told him about the assignment and all he would do was try to simulate two penguins having sex. Which he did totally inaccurately, by the way. I don’t think that was the kind of motion Professor Shinerock meant.”</p>
<p>“Thanks, Sam. I’ll do my best to help,” Izzie replies with a friendly smile.</p>
<p><i>Great</i>, Casey thinks. <i>How did I just lose my girlfriend to my brother for the rest of the trip?</i></p>
<p>------------</p>
<p>Two hours later, things aren’t looking much better as far as Casey is concerned. After the first obligatory wander through the aquarium with her parents, Casey and Izzie had found themselves sitting on either side of Sam as he stared at the penguin enclosure. Casey’s parents had long since excused themselves to find some food in the food court (and probably find some place to “reconnect” some more. <i>Gross!</i>), but Izzie is sitting and patiently talking with Sam about his assignment.</p>
<p>Casey would have found it sweet to see how amazing her girlfriend was with her brother, but she is still a little bitter at being made a third wheel on this trip.</p>
<p>Finally, Izzie’s eyes light up and she turns excitedly to Sam. “Did your professor give you a limit to how many drawings you could make?</p>
<p>“No,” Sam replies without really looking up from the penguins.</p>
<p>“Then what about a flip book?” asks the dark haired girl, bouncing a bit in her anxiety to get her meaning across. “I mean, when I was little, my grandma used to give me these little books for my birthday that had a whole bunch of pictures in them, and if you flipped through them really fast with your thumb, it looked like the pictures were moving!”</p>
<p>A look of recognition lights up Sam’s face. “That’s it! Thanks.”</p>
<p>He bends his head to his drawing pad and starts sketching.</p>
<p>The girls sit for another minute or two before he realizes they are still there and looks up to say, “You can go now. I don’t need you anymore.”</p>
<p>Casey sees a little hurt flash over Izzie’s face, so she quickly gives the back of her brother’s head a playful slap before turning to her girlfriend. “Well, <i>I</i> need you. Let’s get out of here before we get sucked back into the penguin vortex.”</p>
<p>The other girl smiles at that, and Casey is happy to see that Izzie’s brown eyes are now focusing on her. </p>
<p>“Do you want to get some food?” Izzie asks. </p>
<p>Normally, Casey would be all in for eating. I mean, she is basically always hungry. Especially on this crazy new diet that Coach Crowley had her on. But Casey has another idea that is way more pressing.</p>
<p>“Let’s go see the jellyfish,” she suggests.</p>
<p>“Really? The jellyfish, Newton? OK,” Izzie shrugs.</p>
<p>“She just wants to kiss you,” Casey’s brother’s voice pipes up, although he hasn’t looked up from his paper.</p>
<p>“What?” Izzie says, confused.</p>
<p>“It’s obvious. She kept staring at your mouth when you were talking to me, and it’s dark and private over by the jellyfish. They do that so you can see the phosphorescence better,” he adds.</p>
<p>Casey would have wacked her brother even harder on the head than she had the first time, but Izzie’s hand grabs hers before she can, and she looks up to see the other girl standing and grinning down at her.</p>
<p>“Let’s go! The jellyfish sound super interesting,” Izzie giggles as she says it. Casey hopes her face doesn’t look as bright red as it feels.</p>
<p>Without letting go of her girlfriend’s hand, Casey unfolds herself from her seat and stands up. She looks down at her brother, but he is so lost in the world of penguin illustrations that she decides she doesn’t have to say anything to him. </p>
<p>She looks back at Izzie and catches the girl biting her lip and brushing her hair behind her ear… all of a sudden looking a little shy. Adorably shy, as far as Casey is concerned. She grins and starts walking up the ramp to the second floor and the jellyfish, all of a sudden really grateful for all the time she spent here as a little kid. She has the whole floor plan memorized.</p>
<p>As they come out onto the second floor, she spots the dark nook in the far corner of the mostly open space. Glass enclosures line the walls of the big room, and fish of all different colors can be seen swimming around in groups or alone. Casey doesn’t pay too much attention. She is on a mission. At this point she is so desperate to kiss Izzie that she isn’t even going to stop if there are kids crawling all over the jellyfish nook.</p>
<p>Luckily, as they near the dark area, Casey can see that it is empty. She glances over at Izzie and sees that the dark haired girl’s eyes are focused on the little windows they are passing. In the darkness, you can see the glowing bodies and tentacles of the jellyfish as they float and swim their way through the water. </p>
<p>Casey can feel her heart pounding in her chest as they stop in the darkest part of the nook, out of sight from the rest of the larger room. Suddenly, she realizes that she is actually feeling nervous. Good nervous, but still, nervous to be alone in the near dark with the beautiful girl that she wants to kiss more than anything. Izzie looks away from the jellyfish behind the glass and turns her body until she is standing right in front of Casey, with only an inch or two between them. Her brown eyes look up and search until she catches the taller girl’s gaze and stops there. The space is so quiet that each girl can hear the other’s breathing. Breaths that seem to be coming faster and faster. Eyes that wander to each other’s lips. And then they are kissing. Casey isn’t even sure of who leaned in to whom, but however it happened, her lips are moving against Izzie’s impossibly soft ones, and it is so, so good. Casey brings her arms up. One wrapping around the smaller girl’s waist, and the other hand coming up to the back of her neck to pull them closer. Now there is no space between them. Casey backs Izzie toward the wall and as she reaches it, she takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss. She runs her tongue gently along Izzie’s lower lip and feels Izzie’s mouth open and grant her access to the inside of her mouth. The two girl’s tongues slide next to and around each other, and Casey can’t help leaning into Izzie even more until she feels like their mouths are melded together. The kiss goes on and on. Their mouths and tongues moving together like they have been doing this for their whole lives. Casey can feel the warmth of Izzie’s body, and this close together, she can feel all of the curves of the girl. Her hips and her breasts up against Casey’s body in a way that feels so right to both girls. Casey’s hand leaves the small of Izzie’s back and begins to run up and down Izzie’s side. Izzie moans and threads her fingers into Casey’s hair. Suddenly, though, Izzie pulls her head back from the kiss and turns to look down next to her.</p>
<p>“Hi!” Izzie says, breathlessly, to the space just to the left of what Casey can see. Casey turns her body and now she can see that next to them, a small girl, probably only two or three years old, is staring up at them. Casey’s brain is still so caught up in the moment just before, and the girl still in her arms, that she has no idea what could be happening.</p>
<p>“Do you want to look at the jellyfish?” she hears her girlfriend say, and all of a sudden Casey is brought back to reality. Jellyfish. Right. They are at the aquarium. A kid wants to look at the jellyfish. Which she and Izzie are currently blocking with their amazing make out session... Oops!</p>
<p>“Oh yeah, right, sure!” Casey takes two steps away from her girlfriend and accidentally bangs into the corner of a stroller coming around the corner. “The jellyfish are the best,” she hears herself say, although she isn’t sure how she has formed a coherent sentence. Suddenly, she feels a steadying hand take hold of hers, and she looks over to see her girlfriend give her a little knowing smile before biting her lip and looking away. </p>
<p>God she is so sexy. Casey thinks, as Izzie makes a little small talk with the girl’s mom and then pulls them back out into the light of the rest of the aquarium.</p>
<p>They walk for a little in silence, glancing over at each other, but not really needing to talk yet. After a few minutes, they find a bench and sit down. Izzie leans over and presses her body against the side of Casey’s so that she can reach Casey’s ear. Casey feels Izzie’s breath on her ear and the side of her neck and it raises goosebumps up and down Casey’s still tingling skin. </p>
<p>“Have I told you how much I love kissing you, Casey Gardener?” Izzie whispers so quietly Casey almost misses it in the noise of their surroundings.</p>
<p>Casey feels herself blushing, and in an effort to distract Izzie from it, she can’t keep herself from teasing a little, “Wait, you know my real name?”</p>
<p>Izzie rolls her eyes playfully. “Really? Is that all you have to say for yourself?”</p>
<p>“No. No. I totally love kissing you too. In case you couldn’t tell from my ultra suave behavior back there.”</p>
<p>“I could tell,” Izzie says as she gives Casey a little smirk. “Anyway, the jellyfish were a really good idea.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, but now I actually am really hungry. Let’s go eat,” Casey replies as her stomach pipes up with a growl. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was for food.</p>
<p>As they make their way to the food court, though, Casey’s mind drifts back to those minutes in the dark with Izzie. Kissing was amazing, yes, but the way Izzie’s body felt against her, the soft and hard of her in all the right places, Casey knows now that she wants more than just to kiss Izzie. She wants to experience every possible part of Izzie’s body. Casey has never felt this turned on by anyone before, and she is now more determined than ever to get time with Izzie alone this summer. She wants to explore all of these feelings and desires with the beautiful girl next to her. Given Izzie’s reaction to what they had just done, her guess is that Izzie is hoping for the same thing.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>As the summary says, this is part one in a series of stories about Casey and Izzie exploring their relationship. In each one they will get a little farther into their physical relationship. Of course with some added fluff (and maybe angst) along the way. Hope you liked this first one! I'll try to at least get one out a week.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Disclaimer: Characters were created by the writers of Atypical (but at least I get to play with them).</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>